No Preparation
by Kimblee Whitehead
Summary: Joan didn't expect to be going undercover as a nurse. She didn't expect to be seeing the sister of one of her operatives at the hospital. Joan certainly didn't expect she would be telling her the worst news you could possibly give someone.


When Joan Campbell woke up that morning, she expected it would be just another normal day at the office. At least, what could be considered a normal day at the office working for the CIA. She expected to be briefed on situations in the world, supervise her agent's missions while important decisions that if gone wrong, could cause a national disaster. That was a normal day for her.

What she didn't expect to be doing was going under cover as a nurse at a hospital in Connecticut. A goddamn nurse in fucking Connecticut.

So that's how she found herself walking out of the office of a doctor Stephen Fontana, wearing scrubs with a pattern that made it look like she had on oversized children's pajamas.

She just knew there was someone back at Langley looking at her, laughing their sorry ass off as she made her way to the next room.

Doctor Stephen Fontana wasn't just an ordinary doctor. He was an important asset to the CIA. More importantly, he was the reason she was here.

One of his patients that day was Amir Kuruni, a man with known ties to a terrorist group. He had gotten the hell out of him by a group of drunken white guys. It was a bit ironic, actually. A terrorist the victim of a hate crime.

The reason she was called in, was because Fontana couldn't hall his ass to Langley without revealing he was CIA to the entire hospital. She would have sent in one of her agents to do it, but they were already pre-occupied with other life-or-death missions. Besides, it would be a short mission, she figured. It couldn't be worse the jury duty.

She hadn't brought him back yet, because Fontana suspected more members of his group would be coming in later. They had before she got there, so it made sense that they would do so again. Unfortunately for her, the meant she was stuck being his nurse until that happened.

She walked into the examination room, ready to prep their next patient, only to see somebody she didn't expect to see.

Danielle Brooks, the elder sister to Annie Walker. She was sitting in the corner of the room, a nervous look on her face. She gave Joan a small smile.

"Hi," she said, waving. Joan said "Hi" back, feeling very glad that she had never actually met Annie's sister in person before now. She made a mental note to prepare a backstory that she had a twin working at the Smithsonian, just in case.

Joan knew there was something weird about this. She knew for a fact that there were many hospitals close to where Annie was. This hospital was four hours away. Why would Annie's sister come all the way up to Connecticut?

Joan decided to use her spy skills.

Hanging by the door, was a clip board with papers containing the information on the patient. Fontana left them up, so everyone in the hospital knew who they were dealing with. However, this particular sheet failed to mention why Danielle was here.

"It says here that you live in Virginia?" Joan asking, looking at the woman. "This is a long way to come. Do you mind if I ask why?"

She hated using phrases like "Do you mind". She preferred being the boss of situation, demanding answers out of people. However, she wasn't the boss of the DPD just now. She was simply a nurse. She needed to be polite.

"I like the Connecticut Hospitals," Danielle stated, smiling. Joan could read on the woman's face that she knew it was an incredibly stupid answer. Joan raise an eyebrow, seeming to say "Is that your story?". However, the woman stuck with her answer, determined not to change it. The stubbornness proved she was Annie's sister.

Joan started her job as the nurse. She weighed Danielle, measured her height, and checked her blood pressure before Fontana came in.

"Mrs. Brooks," he greeted, "Are you ready for your blood test?" he asked.

"Sure," Danielle responded, slightly reluctantly. Her voice had a certain hollowness behind it.

"Doctor, can I have a word outside?" Joan said, before the test began. Fontana nodded, and said "Excuse me," before walking the woman outside the room.

Once they were out, Joan looked around, to make sure nobody could hear them. When she determined it was safe, she spoke.

"She is the sister of one of my friends in Virginia," Joan said. Fontana knew by "Friends" she meant operatives. Even though nobody was around, you could never be too careful.

"I understand," he said, "I promise that I will use extreme delicacy.

"Why is she here?" Joan asked, "She's four hours away from her house. As nice as this hospital is, there are just as nice ones closer to her."

Joan normally wouldn't have thought much of it, had this been anybody else. However, she learned never to take anything for-granted when it involved someone in or close to the CIA.

Fontana sighed.

"Her appointment is to test for cancer," Fontana stated, bluntly, "To be more specific, Leukemia."

Joan nodded. That explained why she drives four hours. She didn't want to worry her family. She couldn't really blame the woman. If she was testing herself for cancer. If Joan had to take a guess, she had probably driven all this way to avoid the possibility of running into someone she knew.

Joan felt slightly guilty that she knew about this, and Annie didn't.

However, she would handle it. She couldn't let this little incident distract her. All she could do was hope for Annie's sake, that the test came back negative.

* * *

><p>The hours went by, and there was still no sign of Amir's terrorist buddies. However, the blood results did come back from Danielle's test.<p>

Joan took in a deep breath as she looked at the results. She bit her lip, and the results became clear.

Danielle Brooks' blood test had come back positive for Leukemia.

Her mind instantly went to Annie. She knew the blonde was closer to her sister then to anyone else. Joan remembered all of the times she overheard the blond operative talking about her sister. At least once a week, the agent would start a conversation with "So, my sister was..."

Now her sister's life was in danger, and no training at The Farm could possibly prevent it. She could take out a terrorist if the terrorist was holding a gun to Danielle's head, but she couldn't do anything when it was her sister's own body threatening her life.

Again, she felt guilt that she knew this news before Annie did. But, there was nothing to be done about it.

The worst part was right before they were about to break the news to the woman, Fontana got paged for an emergency. Now she got to be the sole one to do the deed.

Joan Campbell had done many things in her life. Hunted down terrorists, escaped desperate hostage situations, and was very familiar with the experience of jumping out of a moving airplane.

What she had never needed to do, was tell somebody they had cancer. No amount of training could prepare a person for that.

Before she walked in, she took out her cell phone. There was a call she had to make first.

"_Joan!" _The voice of Auggie greeted her, "_How's Connecticut?"_

Joan sighed.

"Is Annie is a position where she can be switched out with another agent?" Joan asked.

_"She was able to move her mark successfully to Kiev. We could have her switched out with Jai in an hour, if we wanted to. Why would we want to?"_

Joan wasn't going to tell Auggie why. Annie should be the next one to find out about her sister's cancer, and she should find out from her sister.

"Just do it," Joan ordered. She could imagine Auggie raising an eyebrow, as he responded "_Okay then."_

Joan hung up the took in a deep breath, ready to tell a completely undeserving person one of the worst pieces of news somebody could hear.

She walked in, and was instantly greeted with the desperate look on Danielle's face. Joan wasn't sure if she could do this.

She sat down in the seat next to the woman, and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Brooks," Joan started. She realized by seeing the look on Danielle's face, that she didn't need to finish that sentence. No sentence started with "I'm sorry," and ended with "You don't have cancer."

Danielle's eyes became watery, and she rested her head in her hands.

"Oh God," she mumbled to herself, "My family…what are my chances?"

"There are many different types of Leukemia," Joan started, remembering what Fontana told her to say "Some get worse rapidly, while some get worse very slowly. A blood test can't tell us what kind you can. In order to know what type you have and how serious it is, we'll need a bone marrow sample."

Joan realized somebody trying to hold back tears when she saw it.

"Is there anybody you can call?"

"No," Danielle said, quickly, wiping the water from her eyes, "My sister has a business meeting in New York, and my husband took my daughters out to a theme park. I don't want to ruin their day."

More tears streamed from the woman's eyes.

"I thought I was just being paranoid," Danielle continued, "I thought for sure that that the test would come back negative, and I would be able to laugh at my stupidity."

It was then that Joan got a text from Fontana.

_They're here._

Joan gave a comforting smile the woman.

"You'll get through this," she said. It was the only thing she could think of to say. She walked out the door. She needed to get that out of her mind, and do her job. She couldn't be worrying about the health of the sister of her agent.

All she could do was hope for the best.

* * *

><p><strong>This is for Fayth in the Music. We were talking about Covert Affairs and Leukemia. Her cousin is currently in remission from Leukemia, and we were talking about Joan and Danielle. They're both two different woman, and we were talking about how they would react to cancer. She is going to write a story with a similar theme, and since she is an amazing writer, it will probably beat the hell out of this little thing. So, look out for that.<strong>

**Anyways, Thank you very much for reading. Please review!**


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